pyramid selling

British

noun

a practice adopted by some manufacturers of advertising for distributors and selling them batches of goods. The first distributors then advertise for more distributors who are sold subdivisions of the original batches at an increased price. This process continues until the final distributors are left with a stock that is unsaleable except at a loss

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The most surprising thing right away was that, once you really look at the primary source material on multi-level marketing, which at the time was called pyramid selling, they really didn't hide how it worked.

From Salon • May 21, 2025

In Davidson County, Tenn., five "Dare to Be Great" salesmen were arrested for violating a law against pyramid selling.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Only, it's not in any way a pyramid selling thing, is it, Helena?”

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023